Food Database

MealStack includes India's most comprehensive food database — the only platform combining IFCT 2017, INDB (Indian Nutritional Database), and USDA FoodData Central. Can't find a food? Type a name and AI fills everything, or scan a nutrition label photo.

Data sources

Each food includes up to 80+ nutrients: macros, 12 minerals, 15 vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, phytate, oxalate, and more.

Branded product lookup

Can't find a packaged food like Amul Butter, Britannia biscuits, or a protein bar? MealStack can look up branded products via barcode or name search using Open Food Facts — covering 13,000+ Indian packaged products.

How it works

1. Search for a food in the meal plan builder (e.g., "amul")
2. If local results are sparse, the Branded Products section appears automatically
3. Results show product image, brand, macros, and serving size
4. Click a product → review the nutrition → click Save & Add to Meal

The product is saved as a custom food in your practice. Next time you search, it appears in your local results — no repeat lookups needed.

Barcode lookup

Enter a barcode number (EAN-8 or EAN-13) to find a specific product instantly. The input validates the barcode in real-time:

• Shows digit count as you type
• Validates the EAN check digit
• Auto-submits when a valid barcode is detected
• Works with Indian product barcodes (starting with 890)

Data quality

Branded product data is community-sourced (from Open Food Facts) and marked as unverified. The food detail panel shows this status clearly. We recommend cross-checking nutrition values against the physical product label before using in client plans.

Searching

The search bar supports multiple languages and fuzzy matching:

English — Type "chicken breast" → results show Chicken, breast, without skin, cooked (USDA) and Chicken, breast, raw (IFCT).

Hindi — Type "aloo" → Potato entries. Type "bhindi" → Okra / Lady's finger. Type "dahi" → Curd / Yogurt. Type "chana" → Chickpea / Bengal gram.

Regional — Type "batata" → Potato (Marathi). Type "vendakkai" → Okra (Tamil). Type "baingan" → Eggplant / Brinjal. Type "palak" → Spinach.

Food detail view

Click any food to open the detail panel showing:

• Macro donut chart — visual ring showing protein/fat/carb calorie ratio with total kcal centered
• Nutrient highlights — auto-generated "Rich in" chips showing nutrients exceeding 10% of daily value (e.g., "Vit K 5×", "Calcium 90%", "Iron 40%")
• Portion selector — choose from pre-configured portions or enter a custom gram amount
• Full nutrient breakdown — all 80+ nutrients grouped by type (Proximates, Minerals, Vitamins, Lipids, Amino Acids, Sugars) with RDA percentage bars
• Regional names — Hindi and regional language names for the food

Portion sizes

IFCT foods come with Indian-friendly portion sizes pre-configured:

Select a portion when adding food to a meal plan, and the nutrients auto-calculate based on the weight.

Customizing portions

Every practice uses different portion sizes. Override any platform portion to match your standard:

1. Go to Settings → Food Database → Portions & Measures
2. Click the gram value next to any portion to override it
3. Your override applies to all future meal plans

You can also create entirely new portions (like "1 palm" = 85g for protein foods) and assign them to specific food categories. See Settings → Food Database for full details.

Categories

Browse foods by category using the visual category grid. Each category has an emoji icon for quick scanning:

Custom foods

Add foods that aren't in the database — branded products, regional specialties, or client-specific items. MealStack's custom food creator is AI-powered: type a food name and AI fills nutrients, portions, Hindi name, category, allergens, and more — or scan a nutrition label photo.

Completeness indicator

The dialog header shows a progress bar tracking how complete your food entry is: Name, Category, Diet Type, Macros, Calories, Portions, Image. After AI fill, most checks turn green immediately.

Live macro visualization

As you enter or AI-fill nutrient values, a live donut chart appears in the nutrients section header showing the protein/fat/carb ratio with total calories centered. This gives instant visual feedback on the food's macro profile.

Auto-calculated calories

If you enter protein, carbs, and fat but leave calories empty, MealStack auto-calculates energy using the Atwater formula (P×4 + C×4 + F×9) and shows a blue hint. The calculated value is saved automatically.

Allergen tagging

The Basic Info section includes allergen toggle buttons for 9 common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Soy, Egg, Fish, Shellfish, Sesame. AI auto-fills these when it detects allergens in the food. Selected allergens show as red pills for clear visibility.

Glycemic index

Classify foods as Low GI (<55), Medium GI (55-69), or High GI (≥70) using toggle buttons. AI auto-fills this. Useful for diabetic client meal planning.

Meal suitability

Tag which meal slots a food is suitable for: Early Morning, Breakfast, Mid-Morning, Lunch, Evening Snack, Dinner, Bedtime. AI auto-fills based on the food type. Used by the AI meal generator to place foods in appropriate slots.

Clone from existing

Found a USDA or IFCT food that's close to what you need? Clone it instead of creating from scratch:

1. Open any food's detail panel
2. Click Clone — this opens the custom food form pre-filled with all the nutrient values
3. Modify the name, adjust any nutrients, and save

This is much faster than entering 80+ nutrient values manually.

Quick food creator

When you're in the middle of building a meal plan or recipe and need a food that doesn't exist, you don't have to leave your workflow. A Quick Add Custom Food sheet is available inline from three places:

• Meal plan builder — when food search returns no results, a "Create custom food" button appears. It's also always visible as a footer link while searching.
• Recipe builder — same pattern in the ingredient search dropdown.
• AI day preview — when AI suggests a food that can't be matched to the database, a "Create" button appears next to each unmatched item.

The quick creator is a lightweight form with just the essentials:

After creating, the food is automatically added to the meal slot or recipe ingredient you were working on — no need to search again.

AI nutrient estimation

Don't know the exact nutrient values? Click Fill with AI in either the quick creator or the full custom food form. Enter just the food name and AI fills:

• 16 commonly measured nutrients per 100g — macros (energy, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, sugars) plus minerals (calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, zinc) and vitamins (A, B9, B12, C, D)
• Common portion sizes with gram weights and Hindi names
• Dietary type classification (veg/non-veg/egg/vegan)
• Food category auto-selection
• Hindi/Devanagari name and search aliases
• Description, meal suitability, glycemic index, and allergens
• Confidence level — shown as a colored badge (green = high, amber = medium, red = low)
• Source note — e.g., "Based on IFCT 2017 values for paneer tikka"

The AI handles cooked vs raw disambiguation automatically — "Rice" estimates cooked rice (~130 kcal), "Rice, raw" estimates raw (~356 kcal). For branded foods, it uses known product ranges. For homemade dishes, it estimates based on standard Indian recipes.

Context chips

Before clicking Fill with AI, select a context chip to improve accuracy:

Refine and re-fill

After the initial fill, a refine input appears below the food name. Type additional context and click Re-fill:

• "deep-fried version" → re-estimates with higher fat
• "Amul brand" → uses known Amul product values
• "without oil" → adjusts for dry preparation
• "South Indian style" → adjusts for regional preparation

AI nutrient estimation is free — it doesn't consume any AI credits. This encourages creating complete custom foods rather than leaving nutrient fields empty.

Nutrition label input

For packaged foods, there are two ways to enter nutrition data from a label:

Scan a label photo

Click Scan Label (📷) in the nutrients section header. Take a photo of the nutrition label or select one from your gallery. MealStack uses GPT-4o vision to extract all values automatically:

• Reads all printed nutrient values (macros, minerals, vitamins)
• Detects serving size and whether values are per-serving or per-100g
• Extracts product name and brand name if visible
• Detects the veg/non-veg dot symbol on Indian FSSAI labels
• Handles kcal vs kJ conversion and sodium vs salt conversion
• Shows confidence level (high for clear labels, low for blurry photos)

After scanning, the form auto-fills with extracted values. If the label is per-serving, MealStack switches to label input mode automatically.

Manual label entry

Switch to From Label mode using the tab switcher in the nutrients section. This mode matches what you see on a food package:

1. Enter the serving size in grams (as printed on the label)
2. Enter nutrient values per serving (exactly as printed)
3. MealStack auto-converts everything to per-100g for storage

A real-time conversion indicator shows the per-100g value next to each field (e.g., "→ 12.5/100g") so you can verify the math.

The label serving size is automatically added as a portion size on the food, so you can select "1 serving" when adding it to meal plans.

Packaged food fields

When you enter a brand name or select the "Packaged" context chip, additional fields appear:

• Barcode — EAN/UPC barcode number for future scanning support
• Serving Size Label — the serving size as printed on the package (e.g., "Per 30g serving")

Verification

Custom foods start as unverified. The food detail panel shows a badge:

• 🟢 Verified — nutrient data has been reviewed and confirmed
• 🟡 Unverified — not yet reviewed (default for new custom foods)
• 🔵 Recipe-derived — nutrients were auto-calculated from a recipe's ingredients

Click the Verify button in the food detail footer to mark a custom food as verified after reviewing its nutrient data.

Your dashboard shows a notice when you have unverified custom foods: "X custom foods pending verification — Review nutrient data for accuracy before using in client plans." Click it to go to your food database filtered to custom foods.

Duplicate detection

When creating a custom food, MealStack checks for similar names in the database and shows a warning if a match is found. This prevents accidentally creating duplicates.

Favorites

Star frequently-used foods for quick access:

1. Search for a food or open its detail panel
2. Click the ★ star icon
3. Use the Favorites filter to see only your starred items

Calorie density badges

Every food in the list shows a calorie density badge — a quick visual indicator of how calorie-dense the food is per 100g:

Macro visualization

Search results and the food list show visual macro bars for protein, carbs, and fat — colored progress indicators that give you an instant sense of the food's macro profile without reading numbers.

• Green bar — Protein
• Yellow bar — Carbs
• Orange bar — Fat

The bar length is proportional to the value, making it easy to visually compare foods as you scroll.

Inline actions

Hover over any food row to reveal quick action buttons:

These actions save time by eliminating the need to open the detail panel for common operations.

Food comparison

Compare any two foods side-by-side to make informed substitution decisions:

Nutrient details

Each food includes up to 80+ nutrients, organized by type:

Practice-level controls

Every practice is different — a pediatric dietitian's "1 roti" is smaller than an adult practice's. A vegetarian clinic doesn't need non-veg foods in search. MealStack gives you full control over how the food database works for your practice.

Access these settings from Settings → Food Database.

Portion overrides

Override any platform portion size to match your practice's actual measurements:

The override table shows all standard portions with the platform value and your custom value side-by-side. Click any value to edit inline.

Custom portions

Create entirely new portion types specific to your practice:

• Name (English + Hindi) — e.g., "1 palm (protein)" / "1 हथेली"
• Gram weight — the weight this portion represents
• Category assignment — which food categories this portion appears for
• Default flag — set as the default portion for assigned categories

Examples: "1 palm" (85g, for meat/fish), "1 fist" (80g, for vegetables), "1 steel glass" (250g, for beverages).

Custom portions appear alongside food-specific portions in the meal plan builder. They're marked with a ★ indicator so you can distinguish them from database portions.

Food visibility & filters

Control which foods appear when you or your team searches:

Dietary type filter — Only show foods matching selected types. A vegetarian practice can hide all non-veg foods from search results.

Database selection — Choose which databases are active (IFCT, INDB, USDA, Custom). Disable databases you don't use. You can only activate databases your plan includes; locked sources stay preview-only until you upgrade.

Hidden categories — Hide entire food categories from search (e.g., alcoholic beverages, infant foods).

Search behavior — Set default scope (all foods, favorites first, or custom foods first).

ICMR food exchange lists

The Indian food exchange system (ICMR-NIN 2024) is built in. One click loads all 9 standard exchange groups:

You can also create custom exchange groups for specialized protocols. When exchange lists are configured, the meal plan builder shows exchange counts alongside portions (e.g., "1.5 katori (225g) — 2.5 🌾 exchanges").

Food alert policies

Set practice-level rules that auto-warn or block foods when adding to meal plans:

Trigger types:

• Allergen tag — fires when a food has specific allergen tags (nuts, gluten, dairy, etc.)
• Nutrient threshold — fires when a nutrient exceeds a value per 100g (e.g., potassium > 300mg for renal patients)
• Dietary type — fires when food type doesn't match (e.g., non-veg for vegetarian clients)
• Food category — fires for specific food categories

Action types:

• Warn — shows a dismissible warning, practitioner can add anyway
• Block — prevents the food from being added entirely
• Note — shows an informational notice (no action required)

Scoping — policies can apply to all clients, or only to clients with specific goals (diabetes, renal) or tags (nut-allergy, celiac).

Cooking method adjustments

Configure how food weight and nutrients change with different cooking methods:

Yield factors — how weight changes after cooking:

• Rice: ×2.5 (100g raw → 250g cooked)
• Roti: ×0.85 (30g flour → ~25g cooked)
• Deep fried: ×0.7 (water loss, fat gain)

Nutrient retention — fraction of each nutrient retained:

• Deep frying: fat ×1.5 (absorption), protein ×0.9
• Boiling vegetables: vitamin C ×0.5 (heat-sensitive)
• Pressure cooking: protein ×0.95, fiber ×0.95

Platform defaults are based on USDA Retention Factor Release 6 and Indian cooking consensus. Override any value for your practice.

Display preferences

Control how food data appears across the app:

Practice-level food database controls

Every practice is different — a pediatric dietitian's "1 roti" is smaller than an adult practice's. A vegetarian clinic doesn't need non-veg foods cluttering search. A renal specialist needs potassium warnings. MealStack lets you customize the food database to match your practice.

Access these settings from Settings → Food Database.

Portion configuration

Override any platform portion size to match your practice's actual measurements:

How portion resolution works

When you add a food to a meal plan, MealStack resolves portions in this priority order:

1. Food-specific override — if you've overridden a portion for this specific food
2. Category override — if you've overridden a portion for this food's category
3. Global override — if you've overridden a portion for all categories
4. Platform default — the standard value (ICMR/FDA reference)

Overridden portions show a ✦ indicator in the portion picker. Custom practice portions show a ★ indicator.

Food visibility & filters

Control which foods appear when you or your team searches:

Display preferences

ICMR food exchange lists

The Indian food exchange system (ICMR-NIN 2024) is built in. One "exchange" is a measured amount of food providing approximately the same calories and macros. Foods within the same group can be substituted for each other.

Click Load ICMR Standard to set up the 9 standard exchange groups:

You can also create custom exchange groups for specialized protocols.

Food alert policies

Set up automatic warnings or blocks when adding foods that conflict with client conditions:

Trigger types:

• Allergen tag — warn/block when food has specific allergen tags (nuts, gluten, dairy, etc.)
• Nutrient threshold — warn when a nutrient exceeds a value per 100g (e.g., potassium > 300mg for renal)
• Dietary type — block non-veg foods for vegetarian clients
• Food category — warn/block entire categories

Action types:

• Warn — shows a dismissible warning, practitioner can add anyway
• Block — prevents the food from being added entirely
• Note — shows an informational notice (no action required)

Scoping: Policies can apply to all clients, or only to clients with specific goals (diabetes, renal, pregnancy) or tags (nut-allergy, celiac, vegetarian).

Quick templates

One-click setup for common clinical scenarios:

Cooking method adjustments

Configure how food weight and nutrients change with different cooking methods:

Click Load Defaults to set up platform defaults based on USDA Retention Factor Release 6 and Indian cooking consensus.

Data accuracy & verification

MealStack takes food data accuracy seriously. All imported nutrition databases are verified against their original sources using automated audit scripts.

Verification status

Energy corrections

35 INDB recipes had energy values that didn't match their macronutrient breakdown (a known issue in the INDB source data, particularly soups and watery dishes). These have been corrected using the standard Atwater formula (Energy = Protein×4 + Carbs×4 + Fat×9), with the original source value preserved in a footnote for audit trail.

How to identify calculated values

In the food detail panel, nutrients that were recalculated (rather than directly from the source) show a subtle ≈ symbol next to the nutrient name. The footer shows "Energy calculated from macros" when applicable.

Reporting inaccuracies

If you spot a food with incorrect nutrition data:

1. Open the food detail panel
2. Note the food name, source database badge (IFCT/INDB/USDA), and the value you believe is wrong
3. Contact support at support@workfile.io with the details

We investigate all reported inaccuracies and correct them if confirmed.